Pointing and vocabulary (concurrent)

  • Colonnesi et al. (2010)
  • N papers = 12, N experiments = 12, N participants = 319
  • Concurrent correlations between pointing and vocabulary.
  • Curator is Molly Lewis

Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L., & Volterra, V. (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press.

Dobrich, W., & Scarborough, S. (1984). Form and function in early communication: Language and pointing gestures. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 38, 475–490.

Fasolo, M., & D’Odorico, L. (2002). Comunicazione gestuale nei bambini con sviluppo del linguaggio rallentato: una ricerca longitudinale. Psicologia Clinica dello Sviluppo, 1, 119–138.

Franco, F., & Gagliano, A. (2001). Toddlers’ pointing when joint attention is obstructed. First Language, 21, 289–321.

Harris, M., Barlow-Brown, F., & Chasin, J. (1995). The emergence of referential understanding: Pointing and the comprehension of object names. First Language, 15, 19–34

Locke, J. L. (2007). Bimodal signaling in infancy: motor behavior, reference, and the evolution of spoken language. Interaction Studies, 8, 159–175.

Morales, M., Mundy, P., Delgado, C. E. F., Yale, M., Messinger, D., Neal, R., et al (2000). Responding to joint attention across the 6- through 24-month age period and early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21, 283–298.

Mundy, P., & Gomes, A. (1998). Individual differences in joint attention skill development in the second year. Infant Behavior and Development, 21, 469–482

Murphy, C. M. (1978). Pointing in the context of a shared activity. Child Development, 49, 371–380

Rodrigo, M. J., González, A., Ato, M., Rodríguez, G., De Vega, M., & Muñetón, M. (2006). Co-development of child–mother gestures over the second and third years. Infant and Child Development, 15, 1–17.

Rowe, M. L. (2000). Pointing and talk by low-income mothers and their 14-month-old children. First Language, 20, 305–330

Rowe, M. L., & Goldin-Meadow, S. (2008). Differences in early gesture explain SES disparities in child vocabulary size at school entry. Science, 323, 951–953.

The pointing gesture has been argued to be related to the development of language. This meta-analysis explores the relationship between pointing and language development, both concurrently and longitudinally.

Search strategy: "The search method involved inspection of digital databases (Web of Knowledge, Picarta, PsychInfo) using the following keywords: pointing, gesture, declarative, imperative, precursors, language, words, vocabulary, infancy, intentional communication, and joint attention. Inspection of the reference section of relevant literature was an additional search method (ancestry method). Additionally, also unpublished sources were consulted, such as dissertations and presentations and studies under revision, by using Google Scholar, contacting researchers in the field and consulting digital databases of dissertations (e.g., PROQUEST). Three selection criteria were used to select studies: (a) measurement of infant production and/or comprehension of the pointing gesture; (b) measurement of language by assessing either receptive or expressive language; (c) report of a relation between pointing and language or the presence of data in the article allowing the calculation of a relation between pointing and language development. Exclusion criteria were: (a) subjects with mental or developmental disorders; (b) children older than 60 months; (c) studies in which the pointing gesture was not coded separately from other gestures."

Systematic: yes